The Times newspaper today had one of Sydney Smith’s epigrams as “The last word”. It is printed as “My idea of heaven is eating pate de foie gras to the sound of trumpets.” He didn’t say that. What he said he wanted to eat was Larks Tongues and in his day they would have been served lightly sauteed in butter with a good Sauternes and perhaps a little fine cognac had they been served at all. But he was of course teasing as he so often was. Any priest who can say “What a pity it is that we have no amusements in England but vice and religion!” deserves our heartfelt approbation rather than the bowdlerisation for the sake of political correctness that The Times has offered.
